1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for backing up data, and, more specifically, to a technology for backing up data to at least one device among a plurality of backup destination devices via a communication network, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally known backup systems are systems in which a plurality of backup destination servers exist in a communication network such as the Internet, and at least one backup destination server is selected from this plurality of backup destination servers, and data is backed up by transferring data to the backup destination servers. In such a system, according to Japanese Patent Publication Laid Open No. 2002-215474, for example, a backup destination server constituting a destination for storing data to be backed up (hereinafter “backup target data”) is selected from among the plurality of backup destination servers on the basis of the reliability, performance, or processing speed of the plurality of backup destination servers, and then backup processing is performed by transferring backup target data to the selected backup destination server.
However, with the above-mentioned conventional backup systems, the data characteristics relating to the backup target data are not considered when a backup is made. A variety of types of backup target data may be considered to exist for the user. For example, if there is also backup target data that needs to undergo backup processing distinctly from other data, there is probably also backup target data that needs to undergo backup processing with an emphasis on security and backup target data for which reliability must be secured as in the case of a backup to a plurality of locations may also be considered to exist.
In order to perform a backup in which the data characteristics of such backup target data are considered, settings with respect to how the backup processing is performed may be considered one at a time. However, the setting of backup processing in such small units is a tedious operation and troublesome for the user.
Accordingly, it is a feature of the present invention to make it possible to perform backup processing that is suited to the data characteristics pertaining to the backup target data by means of a method that is straightforward for the user.